It has been a busy few weeks for me. My uncle died last week so I flew East for his funeral and to be with my family. The Fourth of July is a family holiday and also my wedding anniversary. Last Saturday my oldest daughter left for sleep away camp and my other two kids have since had their prelims which have led to their swimming championship meet, tomorrow. Needless to say, I have not been up on updating my assignment postings on ScootPad. In fact, today is the first moment of time I feel like I’ve had to myself in weeks!

The last time I assigned work on ScootPad, it was scheduled to be “due” on Monday. But here it is, Wednesday, and I’ve not added any new assignments. Still, I’d like to know if any students have been on and working. Undoubtedly such lapses in assignment-postings have happened to you as well.

Here’s a quick trick to know if students have been working, even without you “requiring” them to:

Simply backdate the assignment you are creating! When you are creating your assignment, simply choose a start date that has already passed. For example, I created the assignment below on 7/11/14, but I set the start date to 7/7/14, which is the date that my previous assignment was due. Doing so lets me see who has done what since that “beginning” date.

Choosing a start date that has already passed allows you to see who has been working and how they have been doing, even after the fact.

How do you keep track of who has been on and active when you have time away?